The Colorado State Patrol says a truck driver was killed when his tractor-trailer rig ran off Interstate 70 in the mountains west of Denver.
The victim was identified as 37-year-old Moses Gatere of Arlington, Texas. The patrol says Gatere’s truck was eastbound in Summit County on Monday when it crossed into the right lane, which was closed for roadwork, and struck several traffic barrels before running off the highway and plunging down and embankment.
The truck was carrying milk, and some spilled into a creek. The State Patrol’s Hazardous Materials Unit was overseeing the cleanup. Troopers say neither drugs nor alcohol is believed to be a factor in the wreck.
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FUNERAL ANNOUNCEMENT
We regret to announce the death of Moses Muniu Gatere following a road accident on August 4, 2009 in Frisco, Colorado USA. He was the husband to Frashier Nduta Muniu and father to Kairu, Gatere, Waitete and Njambi.
He was the son of Mr. & Mrs. Charles Gatere of Gatimu village in Limuru and a son in law to the late Mr. & Mrs. Daniel Kairu of Kabuku village in Limuru.
Family and friends are meeting daily for prayers and funeral arrangements at the Family’s residence at 7017 Oconner St Arlington, TX 76002. Tel no. 817 468 3214
A Harambee to raise the money needed to transport the remains and the immediate family to Kenya is scheduled for Sunday August 9, 2009 4 PM at the family residence.
A Bank account has been set up for the fund mentioned; any financial support will be highly appreciated.
Bank of America
Account name: Freshier N. Muniu
Account #: 4880 2543 7539
Routing #: 111000025
Account established in the State of TEXAS.
A memorial service will held on Tuesday August 11, 2009 between 4 PM – 6PM at
Trinity Hillcrest Church
12727 Hillcrest Rd
Dallas, TX 75230
Tel: 972 991 3601
Lets join together to grieve and support his family. Your prayers and support will be greatly treasured and May God bless you.
For Additional Information, you may contact any of the following persons.
Alex Ndirangu 469 438 8388
Peter Mbugua 469 835 1210
Rev Jacob Ngobia 972 386 5582
James Mwangi 617 794 3949
Patrick Njoroge 214 404 6227
Robert Thige 469 995 5192
Philip Kuria 214 223 5020
Rose Wakibia 469 438 0873
John Ndichu 682 559 5807
John Mwangi 682 557 6650
Kenyan Truck driver sentenced to 15 years
by Andy Phelan
Ephantus Gathuru, seated with his attorney Michael Davis, looks back
toward his wife seated in the front row of Judge Ann Workman’s DeKalb
County courtroom May 4 before he was sentenced to 15 years for his
role in a 2005 crash that killed three people. Photo by Andy Phelan.
A tractor-trailer driver convicted of vehicular homicide and reckless driving for his role in an I-285 crash in 2005 that killed three people was sentenced to 15 years in prison and five years probation by a DeKalb County Court.
Surrounded by more than 50 family and friends, Ephantus Gathuru, 51, of Smyrna received the maximum penalty May 4, just a week after a jury found him guilty of negligence.
Superior Court Judge Ann Workman, acknowledging the defendant was respectful and that sentencing was difficult, nonetheless showed little leniency.
“Prices have to be paid,” Workman told Gathuru as he stood before the judge in an orange jumpsuit, head slightly bowed. “No one is saying you’re are a malevolent or evil person. But you showed criminal neglect in the operation of your vehicle that day.”
On June 24, 2005, at about 3:30 p.m. Gathuru was driving his 18-wheeler on the east wall of I-285 north near Flat Shoals Road when he hit the car of Truett Beasley, 79, and Gwendolyn Beasley, 72, of Gulf Breeze, Fla. The couple was killed instantly after being thrown 200 feet into a median wall.
Kevin Michael Brunelle, 26, of Warm Springs, was killed when Gathuru’s truck, which according to court testimony, threw cars off the road “like bowling pins,” ran over Brunelle’s truck. Seven people were also injured in the wreck.
Although DeKalb County Police told the media the day of the crash they had probable cause Gathuru was under the influence, tests showed the native of Nairobi, Kenya, was not intoxicated. Gathuru hit seven cars in all, most of which were stopped in the far right lane waiting to get on I-20 East.
In court, Gathuru’s attorney Michael Davis brought nearly a dozen character witnesses to the stand to testify on his behalf. Assistant District Attorney Heather Waters used just one–a letter from the Beasleys’ son, Norman, who recounted the pain of the loss especially “on Mother’s and Father’s Day.”
Ultimately the jury and Judge Workman agreed with Waters–that Gathuru had not taken the care necessary when driving the big rig, which Waters called the “biggest dog on the road” and when not operated correctly the “deadliest weapon.”
Nearly 4,000 people in passenger cars die each year in accidents involving tractor-trailers, almost 20 percent of deaths in multiple-vehicle crashes, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The trucks can weigh 20 to 30 times more than other vehicles on the road and leave passengers in lighter cars much more vulnerable.
Gathuru, by all accounts a respectable and responsible husband and father, was pursuing a nursing degree from Kennesaw State University in wake of the crash. Arriving in July 2000, the Gathurus came to America “so our children could have a better education,” said Gathuru’s wife Anastasia Nugi. All three of their children now have college degrees.
“He’s a good person, a good family man,” said Gathuru’s friend Michael Karuu of Acworth. Father Larry Niese, Gathuru’s pastor at St. Michael the Archangel in Woodstock, said while the incident was tragic, it should not be compounded by Gathuru’s incarceration.
“We can’t let reason be thrown to the wind,” Niese said. “To me, it was an accident. That could have been me, you or anyone.”
Although Gathuru’s attorney Davis said his client would only do “five to seven years” of his sentence, a court official told The Champion that Gathuru would serve “90 percent of his time.”
After the sentence, Gathuru’s friends and family gathered outside the courthouse and prayed in a circle.
“It’s tragic,” said James Karanja of Rex. “He’s a good man.”
Source-The Chambion Newspaper
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Kenyan Community.
Two years ago a kenyan was jailed for fifteen years.He is always filled with joy when i visit him in jail and he remain positive that he will come out one day.My challenges have always been ,did i do enough for him?
Regards
Michael Karuu
Realtor
Certified Business Brokerage{CBB}
Metrobrokers/Gmac Real Estate
Woodstock,GA 30188.
Office:404 843 2500
Direct Line 770 698 1159
Fax: 770 924 5206
Film: The persistence of hope
February 25, 2009
It seems that every time veteran filmmakers Len and Georgia Morris set out to tell one story concerning the plight of the world’s neediest children, they discover another that demands telling.
Such is the case with their latest film, “Rescuing Emmanuel,” the story of an ambitious boy struggling to survive on the streets of Nairobi.
The seeds of the idea were planted during work on the couple’s previous film, “Stolen Childhoods,” and then fully realized when their lives intersected with this charismatic street child.
Next Monday and Tuesday at the Capawock Theatre, Galen Films will present “Rescuing Emmanuel,” the second in a series of three films that shed light on the problem of exploited, impoverished and forgotten children across the globe.
The Morrises, founders of Galen Films, have made it their business, literally, to explore the more unpleasant side of life in order to give a voice to the underrepresented children of the world.
In “Stolen Childhoods,” the Morrises focused on the world of child labor. While filming in places like India, Mexico, Romania and Kenya, they met up with, and filmed, members of another often ignored group – street children, and realized that it was a much bigger story that deserved its own treatment.
The filmmakers gave this second film a working title of “Nobody’s Child,” and headed back to Kenya for more footage. While on location in Nairobi, the Morrises encountered Emmanuel, a savvy 13-year-old with “beguiling personality” who “hijacked” their film.
One of the first scenes in the film shows Emmanuel picking through garbage for his next meal.
He takes the opportunity to plead his case to the camera, stating insistently that he wants to go to school.
According to the Morrises, he showed up again and again, taking center stage with his entreaties for clean clothes, a home, and most of all, a chance to go back to school. Says Ms. Morris, “His need wasn’t what he lived with. He lived by his intellect.”
In torn and filthy clothes and reeking from lack of hygiene, the street boy was relentless in his effort to get Ms. Morris’s attention.
“He literally grabbed me, and he stayed on me, and engaged me,” she remembers. When they moved on to film in another part of Kenya, Ms. Morris’s thoughts remained with Emmanuel, and upon returning to Nairobi, the crew made it their mission to find him. Eventually they became convinced that Emmanuel was their story, and he became the vehicle for presenting the plight of street children the world over.
Using the footage of their search, both for Emmanuel and for a way to help him, the Morrises crafted a poignant story of one child’s struggle, while focusing on the global crises. Says Mr. Morris, “Emmanuel is a representative of 100 million street children all over the world.”
While the film’s plot centers on the Morrises’ mission to save Emmanuel, it also introduces other street children, as well as some remarkable local people who struggle against great odds to provide aid.
These Samaritans are as much a part of the story as the children themselves. Says Mr. Morris, “We always try to line up sort of the flipside of misery. We’re not just looking for problems – we’re looking for solutions.”
For example, a tour of the squalid Kibera, the densest, and arguably filthiest slum on earth, is made bearable by the presence of heroes like Sister Joyce, a surprisingly upbeat nun who is helping HIV-infected kids, and Mama Zipporah, who runs a home and school for 150 abandoned children. The filmmakers hope the film will rally support for these two, as well as others.
Ms. Morris says, “There are so many people in the field working in these countries and they’re woefully underfunded. They’re pushing boulders up a hill.”
“Rescuing Emmanuel” presents interviews and footage of children in six impoverished nations. It is full of twists and turns, disappointments and frustrations, as well as optimism and small victories, including messages from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nobel Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai.
There are harrowing scenes shot with a hidden camera inside a prison, scenes of young girls selling themselves for a meal, and kids sniffing glue to ease their misery. However, the film also reveals the spark of childhood, a persisting sense of self-respect found among children in the worst possible circumstances. Emmanuel epitomizes the perseverance and fortitude that define many children of the streets.
Proceeds from the two Martha’s Vineyard screenings will be used towards launching the Morrises’ latest project, “Media Voices for Children,” a nonprofit web-based news agency and media resource library for children’s rights. “We’re hoping to create a public dialogue about the state of children,” says Ms. Morris.
“We want to be able to put this material online, so schools, libraries, media and journalists can use it,” Mr. Morris adds. “We’ve sought out some of the clearest and most impassioned spokespeople for children.”
Len and Georgia Morris have made it their mission to give a voice to these children and hopefully advance their plight to the forefront of public awareness.
Source-MVTimes
Obama-A Path Beyond Grievance
Washington Post
By William Raspberry
Tuesday, November 11, 2008; A19
It’s been said that the ascendancy of Barack Obama signals the beginning of a “post-racial” America.
I wish. What we have witnessed, I think, is something less profound but still hugely significant. Obama’s election means that in America, including at the highest levels of our politics, race is no longer an automatic deal-breaker. That’s a major step forward in the thinking of white America.
For black America, Obama may be the harbinger of a different transformation: the movement away from what might be called the civil rights paradigm. Since the astounding success of the civil rights movement nearly half a century ago, America’s black leadership has been a civil rights leadership, focused almost exclusively on grievance — America owes us the right to vote, to enjoy places of public accommodation, to attend nonsegregated schools, to be free of the laws that underlie American-style apartheid.
America listened, and changed.
What more recent black leaders have not acknowledged is that there are some problems that the grievance model cannot address. The schools black children attend don’t work as well as they should — but most often for reasons that have less to do with white attitudes than with our own. Many black children — and too many of their parents — don’t value education. If they do, they see it as a debt owed rather than a prize to be earned. Their resulting undereducation renders them specially vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the job market. Black communities are beset by crime and violence but, again, less because of racism than because of lack of discipline in those communities. One key reason for this failure of discipline is the dissolution of black families — not because of discrimination but because black Americans lead the nation in fatherlessness, having allowed marriage to fall to an all-time-low priority.
Obama tried to talk about some of this during his campaign, frequently pointing out that government can do little to improve education unless parents take control of the television, read to their children and check their homework.
The point is not to deny that America’s black communities still suffer horribly from poor education, dim employment prospects and other crippling (and heritable) ills but to observe that these problems no longer lend themselves to civil rights — or grievance-based — solutions.
How has Obama come to see so clearly the need for black America’s active and confident participation in solving its problems?
First, he is supremely confident in his own ability to succeed at whatever he sets out to do, and his experience may lead him to see the power of self-confidence in general. Second, he grew up without the encumbrance of a personal link to American slavery. It is easy even for the descendants of slavery to forget how powerfully that not-so-distant experience guides our sense of destiny. We tend to see slavery as a palpable, almost genetic, experience; that is one reason so many black Americans initially had trouble accepting Obama, with his Kenyan father and white American mother, as authentic.
But while our handed-down “remembrance” of slavery makes us super-conscious of (and, we imagine, steels us against) white America’s racist possibilities, it does two other things as well. It leads us too easily to a racial explanation of all that goes wrong in our community, and it encumbers us with the burden of doubt as to what this country will let us do — and be.
Obama certainly did not escape American racism; his skin saw to that. But he did escape the encumbrance of “genetic” slavery; the people who raised him saw to that.
You begin to understand what a different script he follows when he tells you about his upbringing. His mother resolved early on to get him back to the States from her overseas work. Why? “My son’s an American, and he needs to know what that means,” he quotes her as saying. He recalls his (white) grandfather taking him to watch the recovery of a U.S. astronaut team, waving a miniature flag and remarking that “Americans can do anything they put their minds to.”
How many African American parents proffer their children another script: They won’t let you succeed (except as entertainers and athletes). If you expect to do well elsewhere, you have to be twice as good.
We imagine that we are preparing our children for the real world. But is not Obama’s world also real?
His ascendancy to the most powerful political position in the world does not mean an end to black problems — including the problem of racial discrimination. But it may allow our children to begin to see life as a series of problems and possibilities and not just a list of grievances.
The writer, a longtime Post columnist who retired in 2005, is president of Baby Steps, a parent training and empowerment program based in Okolona, Miss.
Delta Air Lines sets up offices in Kenya
August 18, 2008
Delta Air Lines has set up offices in Nairobi, ahead of the carrier’s plans to start direct flights between the U.S. and Kenya next year.
Jane Mwangi, Delta’s Marketing and Sales Agent, told Business Daily Africa that the office has been busy dealing with inquiries on when the flights would begin.
“There are a lot of expectations from Delta mainly due to the idea of direct flights to the U.S. exciting the market,” she said.
Ahead of the expected start of their flights, now expected in early 2009, Delta Airlines has now opened offices in Nairobi. The move is expected to allow for cultivating ties with the business community and the travel agents in order to generate enough bookings, once the flights commence.
Only recently did Kenya and the United States sign a new bilateral open skies air services agreement, which caters for flights between the two countries by designated carrier. Presently, this will be Delta and Kenya Airways, once they have received more of their ordered Boeing aircraft to serve such a route.
The office in Kenya will also oversee the neighboring markets of Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia for the time being, with connecting flights offered by Kenya Airways.
Both Delta and Kenya Airways are members of Sky Team and are expected to cooperate closely in developing traffic for passengers and cargo on the planned route.
Flights were initially due to commence much earlier but the post-election violence following the disputed elections in Kenya threw the timetable into disarray.
Subsequently even a late 2008 start was pushed further into 2009 to allow the market to stabilize first. Delta is said to be planning four flights a week via Dakar in Senegal, and there is some anticipation that Kenya Airways may eventually under a code share offer the additional three flights to make for daily direct connections between the US and Kenya.
Tourism and trade will both benefit as it will allow swifter access for American tourists to the East African game parks while also facilitating cargo uplift capacity for exports from Eastern Africa to the US without having to go through Europe.
Source-Cheap flights
